Front row – left to right: – Ken Edwards, Warwick Rogers, Rod Reid, Glen Farrell, Guy Millar, Brian Cole. Back row – left to right: – Brent Manssen, Ross Calder, Brian Goodwin (Vets’ President), Nick Bartels (Craig Investment Partners) Steve Habershon, John Fraser.

Waikato Vets Pennants is made up of five zones from Coromandel in the north to Raglan, Waitomo and Tokoroa covering the whole of the Waikato region. The competition is played during February, March and April, each club hosting a round with the two top teams from each zone qualifying for the final. From Zone 5, the two qualifiers were Purangi and Tairua.

The final is a net competition with all players’ scores counting. Six of Tairua’s players went to Huntly for a practice last Tuesday which was a great help in having a look at a new and very long course. On Monday, we arrived to a very crowded Huntly Golf Club, chilly but fine. Teams were playing in fours made up of two pairs from different zones starting at 10.00am. It was a bit daunting watching some of the others tee off as they seemed to hit huge straight drives. We had no thoughts of winning; in fact we thought that 4th or 5th would be pretty good providing we beat Purangi. Our tee times ranged from 10.15 -11.00am so we really had no idea how our team was going other than our own pair. When the scores started going up Tairua had a 66,67,71. By then there was a “Tairua” buzz around the clubhouse, these scores were then followed by 73 and two 74s. Much to our delight, Tairua won by seven shots from Cambridge. The trophy has never been won by Tairua and as a very small club we are very proud to have punched above our weight against some very big clubs. The winning team was Warwick Rogers, Ross Calder, Brent Manssen, Brian Cole, John Fraser and Ken Edwards. On the way to the final others to make up the team were George Chaffey, Ross Reid, Ray Russell, Guy Millar, Tony Anderson, Steve Habershon and Glen Farrell. Obviously the beer tasted very good!